Generations meet at Marian High graduation

Commencement speaker the Rev. Michael Guarino told the Marian High School Class of 2010 that time passes quickly.

Scott O'Connell/Daily News staff

Commencement speaker the Rev. Michael Guarino told the Marian High School Class of 2010 that time passes quickly.

"Fifty years from now, you will think back to this day," he said at the graduation ceremony last night. "And you will say to yourself, 'It seems like yesterday."'

Guarino would know - he was one of 12 members of Marian's first graduating class - in 1960 - who returned to the school last night to celebrate the half-century milestone. They joined Marian's 62 graduates, a class that is less than half the size of the original class of 143.

"When we were seniors, we fancied ourselves trailblazers, pioneers," said Guarino, who was also chaplain at Marian from 1971 to 1978 and is now pastor at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Revere.

Today, Marian exists in a different world from the one that greeted the Class of 1960, he said.

"I am amazed at the list of events and advancements over the last 50 years," Guarino said. Since its first day of school in 1998, he said, the class of 2010 has seen the advent of Google, multiple Boston sports championships and Sept. 11. "When you started school, there was no such thing as the Department of Homeland Security."

The school has also changed since 1960.

"Back then, all our teachers were nuns," he said.

Marian is still led by principal Sister Catherine Clifford, although the school's faculty has had fewer priests and nuns over time. The school has also become more diverse, currently enrolling students from 49 countries.

Hyunsup Kim, the 2010 salutatorian, said Marian welcomes foreign students like him.

"Whenever I asked for help, you always answered with smiles," said Kim, who is Korean, in his speech last night. "I never felt alienated, and I've never felt left out."

Class president Meghan Kelley said Marian High was a "faith-filled sanctuary for learning" over the past four years.

"Whether you had a good day or a bad day, you knew you always had a place to go," she said.

"We learned how to live and how to learn," valedictorian Jonathan Hunt said. "High school is a single test in itself...to rise to a challenge, to stand up for one's ideas."

The returning Class of 1960 also spoke fondly of its time at Marian.

"Physically, it hasn't changed at all, obviously," said Francis McCormack, who attended last night's ceremony with his wife, Joanne, also a 1960 grad. McCormack said it was "fantastic" to see his schoolmates again, who each received honorary diplomas during last night's ceremony in the high school auditorium.

Members of the most recent graduating class also said the friendships they've made at Marian are something they'll remember most about their time there. Graduate Stella Sterlin said that aspect of Marian probably won't change in the next 50 years, either.

"I think it will still be a community," she said. "It's so small, I think we'll still have that essence."

(Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or at soconnel@cnc.com.)